ITERA
Race Director Paul McGreal Gives the Inside Track on ITERA and ITERA-Lite 2025
Rob Howard / 23.12.2024
The ITERA Expedition Race returns as a Qualifier in the Adventure Racing World Series in 2025, in a location that has not been visited by an adventure race for many years, but will surely be on the bucket list for lovers of the Scottish Highlands; the Cairngorm mountains!
The last ITERA Expedition race took place in 2022, and in 2023 and 2024 ITERA-Lite has run in Southern Scotland and Wales, and been a huge success. (The2024 ITERA-Lite had teams from 13 countries and was won by the Swedish Armed Forces Adventure Team.) And the good news is that ITERA-Lite will take place alongside the expedition race in 2025 as part of the ARWS Europe calendar.
The races are now run by Durty Events, who took over from Open Adventure after 2022 and Race Director Paul McGreal spoke to SleepMonsters about plans for the race and the ITERA race model.
Tell us about your history with adventure racing and ITERA?
ITERA has been running since 2010 and I raced it in 2012 in Scotland and 2014 in Wales, so I know firsthand what it takes to complete an ITERA course, and how much racers will get from the experience.
I don’t race so much these days as Durty Events keeps me busy, but took part in NIAR in the Faroe Islands (2023) and Raid in France this year, which was a very technical and challenging race.
I was Race Director in 2019 and 2022 and so although this is technically the first ITERA expedition race run by Durty Events, it doesn’t feel like that. It’s a continuation of the ITERA tradition established by James Thurlow and all of the organising team have many ITERA races behind them. It’s one of the most experienced organising teams in the World Series.
There's always a castle at ITERA
What’s the thinking behind running ITERA-Lite alongside the full ITERA race?
ITERA-Lite filled the space in the calendar as we didn’t have the capacity to run an expedition race in 2022/23 and we didn’t want a 3 year gap to the next ITERA expedition race.
It’s proved very popular and I was surprised by the international entry this year! Clearly there is a desire for a long weekend race with an XPD race feel and experience.
Teams get a lot from it and we need that kind of race as a stepping stone to expedition racing. In the UK there is nothing else between 5 hour and 5 day races, and teams need to gain experience and confidence before taking on an expedition race.
So, I felt it was desirable and possible to run both together, to keep the momentum of ITERA-Lite and offer an opportunity to those who are not yet ready for the 5 day race.
ITERA-Lite will be for pairs only, so there is a distinction with the expedition race and to make it easier for racers to take part. They only need to find one other like-minded adventurer to have a go!
What’s the ITERA style? What can teams expect?
ITERA has its own distinct philosophy which was developed by James Thurlow and we follow that.
We plan our short course first and this includes all the special stages, and all of the good stuff!
Those doing the full course will go further and get more checkpoints, but we ensure every racer has a good experience and gets value for their entry fee. All teams will race a linear route, but there will short course options so teams can match the challenge to their abilities.
That way we can cater for all abilities and the less experienced or first-time teams will still have a great adventure. By providing navigation and tactical options it also means there is no follow-the-leader and everyone has their own adventure.
Special stages - the fastest adventure racers ever?
Secondly, we put great emphasis on having good transitions. We go the extra mile to make sure they are all under cover and can offer a place to rest and eat, out of any bad weather. We want as many teams to cross the finish line as possible and we know this makes a big difference.
Then there are the famous ITERA special stages! Over the years these have included some epic canyons, bridge abseils, the world’s fastest zip line and on the last race an ascent of a classic route on the North face of Ben Nevis.
ITERA has a great sense of place too, and checkpoints in the past have been in many castles, at a whisky distillery and at Rob Roy’s grave.
I can’t tell you whether there will be castles in this race ... but it is Scotland! We will have lots of special stages this time and one is a unique opportunity in a place not normally open to the public. No one will have done anything like it before or guess what it is!
Where’s the venue and HQ?
I think it’s the best HQ we’ve ever had and for the first time ever at a UK expedition race everyone will be on one site.
We’ll be at the Badaguish Outdoor Centre which has 200 beds and all the meeting and testing facilities we need. The race will have sole use of the centre and from the moment teams arrive they will be in the ITERA bubble. The race will have a great community spirit and logistics and preparation will be easy for teams.
Badaguish is set out in the forest (Aviemore is the nearest town), so it’s a quiet environment and we could go in any direction and have a great course. I don’t think teams will guess where the start is!
It’s also less than an hour from Inverness airport and there’s a train station at Aviemore.
The Salomon X-Adventure in 2003 was the last big race in the Cairngorms
What about the Cairngorms and the Course?
It’s an amazing area to hold a race, and there’s not been a big international adventure race there since the Salomon X-adventure in 2003.
The Cairngorms are some of the biggest, and perhaps the wildest, mountains in the UK and include the countries second highest peak, Ben Macdui. The northern corries are famous climbing and scrambling areas, Cairngorm summit plateau is classed as a sub-Arctic climate and the surrounding forests and rivers are a perfect adventure racing arena.
The course has big mountains and sweeping vistas, as well as visiting hidden corners and quiet places in the forests. It has incredible variety and I’m really excited to show visitors this wonderful part of Scotland.
Our course planner is Tom Gibbs once again. Tom is a former World Champion and designed the courses for ITERA in 2014, 2019, 2022 and 2023. He has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the UK and finds places no-one else would, and he’s a human calculator when it comes to planning.
His courses are strong on route choice and navigational complexity and we’ll have no ‘dead miles’ where teams are pushing a bike thinking they should be trekking or riding long road miles to ‘make up the distance’. Scotland has free rights of access for recreation so we can go pretty much where we want and stay out in the wilds.
A highland experience awaits in 2025
Finally, what is special about ITERA for you?
In my own life I’ve experienced the transformative power of sport. The cauldron of adventure racing; managing risk, learning skills, being a team player and pushing your boundaries, is like nothing else. It’s made a big difference to my life and I want to share that experience with others.
I love the moments before the start, with all the chat, expectation and nervous energy, and then at the finish line everyone wants to share their race stories with us. All those stories are different, and every team has had a collective experience of doing something very special.
This is also my part of the world, and I want to share it with teams from around the UK and the world!
The ITERA races are from August 8th- 16th.
The ITERA Expedition Race will be a 400-500km course for teams of 4 (96-120 hours) and ITERA-Lite will be 200-300km (48-60 hours) and is for teams of two only (though two pairs could travel together). For full details and to enter visit; https://itera.co.uk/
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